At a very young age I started playing tennis. My Dad gave me a wooden Billie Jean King cut-off racquet. On the court, he fed me ball after ball until eventually I developed a wallop of a forehand and killer two handed backhand. My husband tells me it was my backhand that made him fall in love with me.

I used to play tennis a lot. In my thirties I wanted tennis for exercise but where I played it was generally doubles. I didn’t get a ton of exercise from doubles. That was disappointing because I wanted to sweat. I now see how dumb that was. What I should have focussed on was how fun it was to be playing a game with other women, a privilege. Screw the exercise, I could get that by taking a run.

In my forties I joined the club team. At first it was fun and casual but I realized that the women I was playing with wanted to move up to the next level. It was more important to them to get better than it was to me. They played three or more times a week, including individual lessons. I played less. I didn’t take lessons. There were other things I wanted to do.

In the summertime I played with a fun and quirky co-ed group of all ages. We had weekend tournaments and I won glass object d’art. I loved it. Then I tore something in my arm and had to stop. Then I enrolled in a three year MFA program and had three tween girls. I had long stopped playing “team” but, I’d still play occasionally, and it was fun.

By my fifties COVID hit and for a while tennis was cancelled. When it wasn’t I’d go every now and then. But, I got out of the habit. The more I didn’t play the easier it was not to. Now here I am in my mid fifties (ish) and I haven’t been playing much at all. In fact, leaving my home to do a lot of things has been hard for me to do.

My husband and I played over the Fourth of July and it was more fun than I remembered it being. And, Wimbledon is on! Yesterday I played with the summer clinic only because a friend called and said she was going. I went. It was so much fun! All women of all levels and ages. Why haven’t I been doing this more? I thought. Today, was a little round robin of all ages, men and women. I considered not going. I have stuff to do. But, I got myself to go! And, it was so much fun!

The moral? Call your friend to come to something. Get out there. Get back in the mix. It’s easy not to deal with other people, but is it good for us? No, it isn’t. In fact, it is part of the current problem in our society. We have stopped enjoying strangers for fear of their politics. For fear of disrupting our little lives. I’m going to break out of my little life, at least on the weekends :) And a ‘thank you’ to Maria for calling.

TTFN:

LOVE for you to participate in doing the Maven5Q!

From Katy Wheatley Wheatley….What’s something that our generation had access to that you’d like to bring back?

This is tough. There are so many things I took for granted that are not around anymore, or if they are, they are so hard to access. When I was a teenager, there was a real sense of anything being possible in the future. I could go to university without being saddled with tens of thousands of pounds worth of debt……..

Want to give it a try? Here are the 5Q

What is the most surprising part of being in this stage of life?

What’s one new thing you’re trying to embrace in mid-life?

If you could give yourself a piece of advice 20 years ago, what would it be and why?

What’s something that our generation had access to that you’d like to bring back?

If the next 20 years of your life had a theme, what would it be and why?

Send them to moi!

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